Brantford asks local feedback on public art for 150th anniversary of the telephone

The City of Brantford is asking for feedback from the local community on what will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the telephone at Alexandra Park.

Earlier this year, city staff called for artists to submit proposals for a new public art piece to be installed at 265 Dalhousie St.

The selections have been narrowed down to three artists and artist teams and residents have until 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 19, 2026 to review and provide feedback to the city.

The successful artist or artist team will be determined through a combination of a scoring system and deliberation by a panel made up of community members and practicing art professionals.

The art installation and fabrication is scheduled to start in February, with expectations to finish in the fall.

City staff will pick a local emerging artist in Brantford, the County of Brant, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, or Six Nations of the Grand River to help with the new art installation as part of an artist mentorship program.

That artist will also receive a paid honorarium of $1,000 for their participation.

The shortlisted proposals open for review in Brantford’s Alexandra Park Public Art project

“AHOY-HOY” by Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster is a piece inspired by Alexander Graham Bell’s legacy of experimentation and testing.

It is composed of two large parabolically shaped bronze discs facing each other across Alexandra Park at least 50 metres away.

The reflective shape of the discs would allow anyone to whisper with someone at the other end and appreciate the experience of distant speech.

“Journey to the Centre of the Dial Tone” by Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett is an interactive art installation featuring several unique phone booths standing in a circle in the park.

Each booth will appear worn and weathered, and aim to inspire curiosity and nostalgia in older park visitors and appear novel or “vintage” for others.

All six phones will be wired together in a closed system and when one is picked up, three phones will ring. The wiring will allow the chance that all six phones could be in the call.

This project will be set up in the “spirit of the best science fiction” meant to transport voices across time and space.

“Hello” by Kyle Thornley is a 28-foot-long sculpture fashioned in the horizontal visualization of the electrical transmission of the human voice.

The sculpture is broken up into different coloured sections, with different parts representing the human voice, others parts as the electrical pulse, and vortex portals to act like the microphone and receiver.

The wave form itself is derived from recordings of “hello” in multiple languages — including Haudenosaunee, in recognition of the original peoples of the Grand River territory — to reflect the global reach of the telephone and its local origins.

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